Epilogue Part 1: In This Memory

The car wound its way through the cemetery, tracing a path it had followed dozens of times before. It's driver guided it along, making sure to stay just under the speed limit, finding no need to rush at a point like this. He pulled into the parking space, not surprised to be the only one there on a day this hot. Getting out of the car, stared at the hill before him. He closed his eyes, tears already boiling to the surface. He swallowed, trying to keep himself in check. He didn't want to cry before he even reached the grave.

He slowly walked ahead, careful to stay on the path and not to step over any of the graves. He was pretty sure the dead people wouldn't mind, but it still bothered him. After walking over the same path he had many times before, he reached the grave he was looking for and knelt down

"It's been a while, hasn't it Zack?" Cody asked the stone marker below him gettling running his hand across the letters. "Sorry I haven't been here recently, but I've been really busy with getting everything ready to go to college in the fall. Life's been quiet this past year without you. It's strange, there were so many times I counted the seconds until we would be apart, but now that we are, it just feels so wrong—like some sadistic author tore us apart for his own twisted amusement.

"Well, it's only about a month till I go off to Cal Tech. It will be a great school, I think you'd like it there too. Every year they freeze a bunch of pumpkins with liquid nitrogen and drop them off the roof of their tallest building. See, school can be fun after all," he said with a slight laugh. "The best part of it will be the things I can learn. Hopefully with everything they can teach me, I can find a cure for cancer, and save people like you. I know it's going to be hard, but you were never one to shy away from challengers, and I won't be either."

How he wished that he would have his brother here instead of just a reminder that he existed. Even so, his logical mind told him that was impossible. He thought back to those last few months with Zack, how fun they were, and how he wished they could have continued.

Thinking deeper though, knowing they didn't have much time together is what made them savor every moment of it. He had to thank Zack for that. When he heard the news, he wanted to give into despair, and break down in tears right there in the doctor's office. He thought back to how Zack told him that just meant they had take in as much as they could in the limited time they had left and they did.

"I know you weren't one for things like flowers, but I brought these anyway," Cody said setting down some roses on his brother's grave. "I know, you'd probably tell me to give them to a girl or something like that, but for now I just want to remember the times we had." A few tears escaped his eyes and began flowing down his cheeks.

"And I also wanted to leave this here." Cody kneeled down on the ground and took a little angel figurine out of his pocket and set it on the stone grave. He couldn't stop himself from crying as the small glass figure broke apart the rays of the sun creating a small rainbow on the ground above his brother's feet. "You were my angel Zack," he said as the tears continued to pour. "You were always there for me, to give me the push I needed to try something new or to go after my dreams. You showed me how to have fun, and to enjoy life. Even without you here, that's what I've been doing. I have to live life to both of us now.

"I have to wonder, are you looking down at me now, shaking your head at me for being such a dork? You probably just want me to go live my life and stop dwelling on the past. Don't worry, I will soon. Thanks Zack, for everything. You were the best brother I could ask for. Even with you gone, we will be twins forever."

Tears began pouring down Cody's face too much for him to begin talking. He just knelt there, letting his emotions take control of him. He did everything he could to keep this from getting to him not wanting it to get in the way of him living his life, but he made an exception here. This was the time with just him and his brother, so he could cry. And if anyone saw him here, well they didn't matter.

"Good bye, my best friend, my twin, my angel." Cody got up, the tears still in his eyes, knowing that it would be a long time until he'd be on this side of the country again. That was okay though. He didn't have to stay near Boston to keep Zack's memory alive, in fact by spreading his wings into new adventures, he felt that was honoring his memory even more.

As he turned around, he felt a cool breeze blow by him despite the scorching hot day. With it came a whisper that anyone else would have thought was just their imagination.

A small puddle of tears rested on the ground behind him and Cody made his way back to the car, thinking about Zack every step along the way. As he turned on the car, song began playing that seemed to reflect Zack's life all too well.

'My best friend once gave me the best advice
Each day's a gift and not a given right.'

If Today was Your Last Day, Nickleback

…

Epilogue Part 2

30 Years Later

Another freezing gust of wind rocked the old metal building, the echo of the storm being heard by the few souls left inside. For once, he looked up from his computer, barely able to see through the clumps of snow piled up against the glass window. But despite the cold, and despite the furnace not being turned up as high as it should have been for this late December day, the sweat was continuing to pour down the man's brow. He took a few breaths as he stared at the code in front of him, scrolling through the many lines of symbols trying to figure out what went wrong. He knew he didn't have much time, the storm was getting worse and he promised his wife that he'd be home early so they could pack for their trip, but he felt like he was close to getting the code to work.

And time always seemed to escape him when he felt he was this close to getting the answer.

Another time running the code, another time seeing the same results, the same error messages.

This was probably just pointless anyway. It was another idea that he thought might be brilliant a year ago until he actually tried to make it work. But after all the trials, all the thousands of different ways he could think of analyzing the data, there was nothing but random noise, and now he couldn't even get the code to run without a memory overflow exception.

This failure made him think about what led him down this path in his career while he spun in his chair. When he was younger, he had no idea what type of career he wanted. Maybe a professional athlete in some way since he liked sports. But that was just a lofty goal, one that he figured he might as well pick since he had to have some sort of dream. It even led him to joining a high school basketball team and after meeting a friend named Neal, he decided to take it more seriously, and even trying out for a college team, even if he didn't actually make the team there.

But while at college he ended up rooming with a guy who was studying computers. And because you could only declare undecided for so long, and the fact that said roommate once wrote a program to do math homework, he decided to give that a try as well, finding it not boring, and sticking with it. Eventually, he came to like the idea of programming computers, figuring out how to use them to solve problems. Several jobs came and went. Once a staff reduction caused him to lose his job. Then another time, he found a way to make more money. Though that soon led to him yelling at security with what they should do with their green slips. Eventually, he found himself sitting in this char, at this computer, analyzing this data.

Still seeing no evidence that his hypothesis could be at all possible. A few frustrated taps off the keyboard and a click of the mouse later the program ran again, him expecting the same failure to run error, but he didn't want to leave any stone unturned.

But then, something strange happened.

"p value 0.05" he said aloud reading the text on the screen.

It...actually ran.

He couldn't believe it.

Those few edits that he made shouldn't have fixed a problem with the memory. But somehow, it did. And more than that, his code told him there was something significant to his theory. He looked at the code closer, trying to figure out how this could work. But then he saw it, that he had ran an old version of the code, but with his new data.

He laughed, a simple mistake being the hint he needed.

Medical research was a tiring task. So many deadlines, failures, and setbacks, but sometimes for all the brilliance thrown at a problem, what truly lead to a breakthrough was a bit of dumb luck. As he used that mistake as a spring board, the puzzle started coming together, a success with a prototype drug getting close. As he typed faster, getting more excited with each successful run of code, he didn't stop to think what this could mean for the world. He was merely absorbed in his minute by minute victories over the unknown.

There were times when he took pride in his work, in the medicine that he could create that could save lives, though it often time felt distant for him. Someone who merely runs code, tests small ideas probably won't change much on their own. But though their small actions, they may guide another along the way. And they may guide another. And another.

The End

July 17th 2010.

That is the date modified of the oldest file I could find regarding this story. It was revisions The-Lovely-Anomaly had given me since I first approached her about helping me with this story. It went through many iterations, many betas, and more than one hiatus. But now, after 8 years and 19 days, I declare this story completed.

Like the past few chapters I have posted, most of this was written several years ago with me only doing some final edits. However, the second part of the epilogue was written a few weeks ago. I wanted to show the impact Zack, or any life can have on the world, through the small actions that cause big influences down the road.

And lastly, I want to get more into writing again. I'm considering started to edit and post the story I did for National Novel Writing Month last year. While it's mostly original fiction I would like to post it here since that's where my main audience here. That and one of the main characters is from an anime who wouldn't go away when I was planning so I took him along for the ride. If you're interested, make sure to have my author-alert selected, or let me know you're interested and I'll message you if/when I post it. Actually, you know what. I should start editing it now so I can get progress made while I still have motivation.